The phenomenal success of The Big Doll House saw Roger Corman order Jack Hill back to the Philippines and to come up with more of the same. Hill was given the script for the original but wrote this one from scratch, so he really doesn’t have anyone else but himself to blame for the fact it isn’t as good (and wasn’t anywhere near as popular, though Hill claims it has become cult success).There are several reasons for this:
(a) the casting isn’t as good. Although Pam Grier returns (as a revolutionary) and the statuesque Anitra Ford steps into the innocently-accused-but-not-really-an-innocent-type role played by Judy Brown in the first film, and both are terrific, the rest of the cast aren’t up to it – the other female prisoners, in particular feel very undercast, look like they belong more in a summer camp movie than in a women in prison film, which requires big personalities (one of them is an Aussie chick who was in Manila at the time, met Hill and found herself in the film)
(b) The prison is too nice! Instead of a grimy gaol, there are airy bungalows with dorm accommodation and it is all out in the open – it out be a resort.
(c) There are too many men. The warden is a man, the guards are men (all gay, incidentally), much of the plot revolves around Grier’s fellow revolutionary boyfriend Sid Haig. We don't watch women in prison films to see men!
Having said that the film has some highlights – it is a fun idea to have Grier break into prison in order to recruit revolutionaries, and there are some memorably bizarre moments, like the seven foot lesbian character who covers herself in grease so other prisoners can’t tackle her enabling her to attack a fellow bitchy inmate, the mad house of mad female prisoners, and a scene where the horny female prisoners rape one of the gay guards (one of them squats on his face to stop his screams of terror). There is also a gratifyingly chaotic revolt at the end, and Grier and Haig’s relationship is unexpectedly touching.
Hill’s commentary on the DVD is interesting – he seems a little defensive about the film, continually going on about its cult status and saying he isn’t PC every time a character on screen says something particularly full on (eg Ford telling Haig “you can’t rape me, I enjoy sex”).
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